Best Mic Drop

Benny Starr at PechaKucha

Staff Pick

When hip-hop artist Benjamin Starr stepped up to the mic during Pecha Kucha back in January, I’m not sure the room was ready. Not a creature stirred as Starr delivered a call for reflection, asking the mostly white audience if they wanted a Charleston for black people. He presented hard, uncomfortable truths, touching on social segregation, economic segregation, and lack of affordable housing in the Holy City as well as the power of white political will: “it doesn’t ask, it decides.” It’s a talk worth revisiting often, and you can via its full transcription on the City Paper website. —Kelly Rae Smith